Really Shaken Up

[Casey_03]

So something crazy just happened. I can't stop shaking, I am so freaked out. I live alone in an old Soviet-era building. My roommate recently moved out, so I am here alone with my three-month-old baby. I went into the kitchen today, as I always do, to make myself some tea, leaving the baby sleeping in his crib in the other room. All the windows were open and it was unusually windy today, so when I was in the kitchen, the wind slammed the kitchen door shut. This would have been fine, except the door knob on my side was broken; there was no way to turn the knob from inside the kitchen.

I had always known the door knob was broken but never thought it was a problem, because the door had never fully slammed shut before (when my roommate lived here he always kept that door propped open).

So I tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. I tried everything I could to open it -- tried to pick the lock from my side, tried to force the door knob out of the other side, then tried to break the lock with a heavy object. Nothing worked. I started to panic -- I didn't have my phone with me, so couldn't call anyone, and even if the police came, my apartment has a crazy, custom-made security door that they wouldn't be able to break down.

So I started crying hysterically and screaming my head off, because I heard my baby in the other room starting to cry and I knew he was hungry. It was a nightmare. I never thought something like that could happen, that I'd get trapped 10 feet away from my baby and be unable to get out of my own kitchen.

I kept thinking, "There must be some way to open this damn door." But there wasn't, nothing worked. I have blood all over my wrists and arms from trying to bust the door open, bruises all up and down my arms and hips from when I tried to open it by throwing myself into it. Ultimately I ended up smashing in a thick-glass window inside the door. The door is completely and utterly destroyed. I am bloody and bruised, but my baby is okay.

The upstairs neighbor came down to check on me, along with police. I guess they heard me screaming insanely. So that's good; I'm actually glad that they bothered to check on me. Although now I feel really stupid and am sure they thought I was crazy -- my makeup is all running down my face and I am sure I looked crazed. I was shaking like crazy and still trying to catch my breath. That was utterly terrifying. I think it caused me so much stress it probably stopped my lactation.

My question to you guys is -- am I now liable for the damage to the door? Should I have to pay for that? Or should that be on the landlord, since the door was basically faulty and put me and my baby in danger?

 

[Anarchy]

OMG that's absolutely terrifying :hug:

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Is it just the glass that is smashed?

I had to smash a wire reinforced window out of a door a few months back, It took me a couple of hours to find somewhere that stocked the glass and get them to cut a piece to the right size and another hour or so to clean the old glass out, carefully pry the wooden strips that had held it and fit the new with a tube of silicone rubber sealant and some new panel pin nails to hold the wood strips in.

total cost under approx $15 us.

can you get a screw driver and remove the lock from that door so it can't lock you in again?

I'm not sure what size you are physically for being able to move a door around on your own, I'm guessing that the internal doors will be a pretty standard size, you can probably buy a second hand one cheap enough if yours is beyond repair.

 

[Casey_03]

@Anarchy It's the entire door that's damaged, because before I broke the glass, I tried to smash the lock out on the other side, using a frying pan to hit the door. So all the wood is damaged. It's a very old door, and the glass I broke was some sort of fancy, really thick, decorated glass. So I am guessing they are going to demand quite a bit of money from me; they'll probably need to replace the entire door. But I'm wondering if they shouldn't be liable for it, at least partly?

 

[Casey_03]

God, I feel so stupid. I honestly never thought something like that could happen. Sure, I'm always afraid of serial killers, burglars, rapists, etc .... but getting locked in my own kitchen by a gust of wind?!? It sounds crazy. I suppose it might even have been funny if there wasn't a crying baby alone in the other room and a special security door to keep even police from saving me.

 

[Anarchy]

they are going to demand quite a bit of money from me; they'll probably need to replace the entire door. But I'm wondering if they shouldn't be liable for it, at least partly?

time for the negotiating skills

I'm guessing that somewhere there's going to be a builder's salvage yard, or a bunch of Gipsies who do stuff like that, that you, or your landlord will be able to get a replacement door from, that will fit the hole or require very little modification to fit the hole.

and it probably won't cost very much, whoever ends up paying.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

Omg :eek: that sounds so horrible and terrifying. I can't even imagine how awful that must have been to be trapped with the little one in a different room.


I would say they are responsible for paying for the door as it was faulty and dangerous. I'm not sure if that makes any difference though because landlords always seem to get out of things like this find loop holes and what not.

If you report the door to your landlord at any point for being faulty then they shouldn't be able to wriggle out of paying. I think that's one of the ways they would get out of it if you didn't report the problem to be repaired. But in these old buildings there's always something needing done 100 little things not quite right and I always find I end up adapting to things and you can't report everything they should absolutely pay for it and apologies for all the distress it caused you. I was just thinking they may try to get out of paying and try to find a way to get you to.

I hope your feeling a bit better now and hopefully they'll do the right thing and pay.

 

[Casey_03]

@NoWhereKnowWhere I honestly wouldn't even mind paying if I knew the landlord was going to ask for a reasonable price, but everyone here is pretty corrupt, and I have a feeling he'll demand much more from me than is actually needed, or go for a super fancy door. I had someone try to break in here before, and the intruder damaged the door, but I ended up having to pay for the damage.

This time around, I never reported the broken door because I never even noticed it before. I had never even closed that door before. It just so happened that today the windows were all open and it was super windy ....

 

[Casey_03]

I think what bothers me more, is that I know the landlord will try and tell me that the door was fine and I am crazy. That's what happened when someone tried to break in and it damaged the door. Basically, a locksmith came out to replace the lock, and he told the landlord that someone trying to break in had likely damaged it from the outside, and that whoever it was had to have been really strong to cause that damage. The landlord insisted that I had damaged it by using too much force when the key wouldn't work. He basically just very condescendingly told me I was insane and had damaged the door, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

So I have a feeling he will treat me the same way in this case, which will infuriate me because this situation was so incredibly distressing. I'm also irritated cause i mentioned to some friends what happened and they all keep saying it's impossible that the door wouldn't open, that I must have just not been trying hard enough to open it .....

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

Your landlord sounds like he's at far end of the d bag landlord spectrum. It seems even in countries where there's not such a corruption problem landlords get away with far too much. It's just totally shit.

Your friends don't seem very friendly and seem very invalidating. Not to mention sorta stupid without a properly functioning door handle doors don't work. I myself have been trapped in a bathroom (twice in two different bathrooms) that had a faulty door handle luckily both times there were other people in the flat/house and I wasn't in there long. I was still shaking for an hour or so after and it was only a small time I was in there and wasn't alone with a baby trapped in a different room.

 

[Casey_03]

@NoWhereKnowWhere Thank you!!! That makes me feel a bit better. I just told my sister what happened and she also didn't believe me, and said I'd "have to be retarded" for that to happen.

 

[Casey_03]

It infuriates me that people are having this reaction, as if I overreacted. I wonder how many of them know what it's like to hear your own baby crying in distress in the other room and being unable to get to him. I was ready to climb out the 4th floor window and try to get in through my neighbor's balcony, that's how desperate I was to get back to my baby. (Sorry, at this point this is just me venting, because I didn't expect to get the reaction I am getting from friends)

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

It's pretty f*cking basic common sense. If the door handle isn't working if when you move the door handle it doesn't move the latch in the frame it is now acting as a lock. Jesus it's not f*cking rocket science. That's making me really angry on your behalf for some reason.

ETA: vent away your totally right to be pissed.